The present invention relates to the making, confinement and ascertainment of genuineness of confined commodities, especially to the making, arraying, confinement and ascertainment of genuineness of groups of discrete commodities, such as arrays of plain or filter cigarettes or other types of rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry. Examples of commodities which can be made and the origin of which can be ascertained in accordance with the method and in the apparatus of the present invention are so-called soft and hinged-lid packs of plain and filter cigarettes. Therefore, this application will discuss primarily the making and further processing of packs of cigarettes and of the contents of such packs but with the understanding that the invention can be practiced with equal or similar advantage in connection with the making and processing of containers for other discrete products of the tobacco processing industry as well as of commodities in fields other than the making, packing and other modes of processing smokers"" products.
It is customary to confine arrays of, e.g., five, ten, nineteen or twenty cigarettes in containers or packets each of which is made of two or more layers of suitable wrapping material. For example, a so-called hinged-lid pack can contain an array of twenty cigarettes in the customary quincunx formation, an inner envelope of a metalic sheet material (such as tinfoil), a second envelope or box made of cardboard or plastic material and surrounding the array, the inner envelope as well as a customary stiffening collar, and an outermost envelope consisting of cellophane or other suitable transparent or translucent sheet material and often containing a so-called tear strip or tear tape. The outermost envelope surrounds the box and must be removed, at least in part, in order to afford access to the pivotable lid of the box.
It is becoming progressively more popular and more advisable to provide a technique of detecting the existence of foregeries, i.e., to establish a procedure which enables a person or an organization to ascertain whether or not commodities provided with the trademark(s) and/or other indicia denoting the products offered for sale by a reputable manufacturer of cigarettes or other types of grouped or arrayed rod-shaped commodities are properly labelled or are products offered for sale or being sold by imitators. The detection of forgeries or the absence of requisite numbers of cigarettes in a packaged array is complicated because a soft pack or a hinged-lid pack of cigarettes must be opened if an inspector or an apparatus is to gain access to the contents of the pack.
Otherwise stated, it is advisable to ensure that the information borne by the visible parts of a cigarette pack (i.e., the information at the exterior of that envelope or those envelopes which can be inspected without opening the pack) is truly indicative of the quantity and/or origin of the contents of the pack.
The aforementioned commonly owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/671,585 discloses a method of and an apparatus for providing rod-shaped articles with indicia the distribution and/or the nature of which is ascertained by a detector and the thus obtained information is applied to the exterior of one of the converted blanks forming part of the envelope or packet of a cigarette pack or another commodity wherein one or more parts or elements or members are confined in an envelope.
The method and the apparatus of the present invention provide additional modes of and means for ascertaining the genuineness or lack of genuineness of packaged goods, e.g., arrays of plain or filter cigarettes. The purpose is to ascertain whether or not the information borne by a packet or another suitable receptacle is indeed (i.e., truly) representative of the packaged contents.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method of facilitating the identification (such as the ascertainment of genuineness or lack of genuineness) of the contents of containers or receptacles or packets for discrete commodities or groups of commodities, such as arrays of cigarettes or other rod-shaped articles of the tobacco processing industry, without it being invariably necessary to at least partially affect the integrity of the containers.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of making and/or processing discrete commodities (such as plain or filter cigarettes) and/or their containers in such a way that the genuineness or lack of genuineness of the products can be ascertained without it being necessary to manipulate the containers in a manner other than that being customarily resorted to by a purchaser or owner of the commodity or commodities.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel series of steps of associating or disassociating the contents of cigarette packs or the like with or from the asserted or assumed maker or makers of the contents and/or of the containers in a simple, time saving and relatively inexpensive manner.
An additional object of the instant invention is to provide a novel and improved apparatus for the practice of the above outlined method.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a machine or apparatus which is constructed and assembled to monitor normally concealed or confined products, such as cigarettes or other types of rod-shaped commodities, for their association or lack of association with the asserted or reported processor and/or distributor of such products.
A further object of the invention is to provide novel and improved means for facilitating the identification of plain or filter cigarettes or analogous rod-shaped smokers"" products while the products are confined and at least partially concealed in packs and/or other types of receptacles or containers.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved technique of facilitating the detection of imitations of established smokers"" products.
One feature of the present invention resides in the provision of a method of ascertaining the genuineness of the contents of containers which confine commodities and bear information purporting to denote the originator (such as the maker and/or distributor) of the commodities. The commodities in the containers are provided with indicia which denote the actual originator of the commodities. The method comprises the steps of generating a first signal which denotes the information borne by the containers, at least partially opening the containers to afford access: to the indicia of the commodities in the containers, generating second signals denoting the information represented by the accessible indicia, and comparing the first signals with the respective second signals.
The commodities can constitute arrays or groups of parallel rod-shaped smokers"" products such as filter cigarettes.
The information which is borne by the containers is or can be encoded, and the method then further comprises the step of decoding the information which is borne by a container prior to the generation of the first signal.
The containers are or can be provided with closures (such as the customary lids of hinged-lid cigarette packs) which must be manipulated to gain access to the confined commodities. The opening step of the method which deals with the testing or handling of such containers preferably includes manipulating the closures to thus afford access to the indicia of the commodities in the respective containers. If the commodities are arrays of smokers"" products having filter mouthpieces, such filter mouthpieces are preferably adjacent to the respective closures and the mouthpieces of each array of filter cigarettes can be provided with a plurality of indicia. The step of generating second signals in connection with testing of containers containing commodities of the just described character can include contacting the filter mouthpieces with a signal generating implement (such as a suitable detector) which can reach the mouthpieces upon completed manipulation of the respective closures to expose the filter mouthpieces. The method of generating second signals in accordance with a method which includes the step of generating second signals in the just outlined manner can include ascertaining the positions of the plurality of indicia relative to each other.
The method can further include the step of generating a defect signal in response to detection of identical second signals upon ascertainment of information represented by indicia on the contents of at least two successively tested containers.
The indicia can assume the form of or can include metallic objects such as pieces of metallic foil or films of metallic material.
The method can further comprise the step of displaying the results of each comparing step.
Another feature of the present invention resides in the provision of an apparatus for ascertaining the genuineness of the contents of containers which confine commodities and bear information purporting to denote the originator(s) of the commodities. The commodities in the containers which are tested in the apparatus of the present invention are provided with indicia denoting the actual originator(s). The improved apparatus comprises means for generating first signals which denote the information borne by the containers, means for generating second signals denoting the information which is represented by the indicia on or in confined commodities and is accessible upon at least partial opening of the containers, and means for comparing the first signals with the respective second signals.
The contents of the containers can constitute or include arrays of rod-shaped smokers"" products at least some of which exhibit identifying indicia. The first signals generated by the apparatus for testing such containers are or can be indicative of the positions of indicia in or on the contents of an at least partially opened container relative to each other.
The information which is borne by the containers is or can be encoded, and the apparatus then further comprises means for decoding the encoded information prior to the generation of the respective first signals.
The means for generating second signals can comprise a detector which is arranged to contact the commodities upon partial opening of the respective containers. Such detector can comprise its own energy source and can constitute a mechanical, optical, electrical, magnetic or other suitable detector.
The indicia can include or constitute metallic indicia.
If the containers are of the type having closures which are movable between open and closed positions, and if the commodities include arrays of rod-shaped smokers"" products having filter mouthpieces, such filter mouthpieces are adjacent the closures of the respective containers and the indicia can include metallic indicia which are provided on at least some of the mouthpieces and are detectable by the detector upon movement of the closures to their operative positions.
The apparatus can further comprise means for displaying the outcome of comparison of first signals with the respective second signals.
The information which is borne by the containers can include or constitute printed matter.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic of the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The improved apparatus itself, however, both as to its construction and the modes of assembling, installing and operating the same, together with additional important and advantageous features and attributes thereof, will be best understood upon perusal of the following detailed description of certain presently preferred specific embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.